News of the Day

Re: Ben Pooler Contact for "We Said No"

LanceSpring — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 03:03:19 GMT

OK everyone, here are the two things that we all need to do:

#1: Saturday ( tomorrow), go out and sign the petition, and get the income tax referred to a vote!!! If anyone here still trusts the word of someone like Stewart, I pity them for their folly.

Here are the locations tomorrow where you can sign the petition:

Graffiti Alley, 675 River Road, Eugene

Econo Lodge, 1190 W. Sixth Ave., Eugene.

Eugene Elks Lodge No. 357, 2470 W. 11th Ave., Eugene.

Immanuel Baptist Church, 3050 Game Farm Road, Springfield.

Emerald Isle Mobile Home Park, Recreation Room, 658 S. 57th St., Springfield.

Hearth & Patio Shop, 85295 Highway 101,Florence.

Ray’s Food Place, 25013 Highway 126, Veneta.

D&D Classic Automotive, 1180 Ivy St., Junction City.

#2: Next week, go to one of the two Commissioners public meetings they will be having, and sign up for the public comments, and give them an earful!!

Here is the info on the two meetings:

TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2007 - WORK SESSION

9:00 a.m. (Commissioners' Conference Room)

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2007 - REGULAR MEETING

9:00 a.m. (Commissioners' Conference Room)

The location for both meetings is the same:

Public Service Bldg.

125 East 8th Avenue

Eugene, OR 97401

Phone: 682-4203

The time for debating this matter has ended. It is now time to TAKE ACTION! Get out there tomorrow, and also next week.

Lance in Springfield

Re: Ben Pooler Contact for "We Said No"

schaalman — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 22:08:54 GMT

Good for you and this battle is just part of the big picture of the awakening of all American people to how we are all being fleesed by our public servants(not leaders). I urge all of you to do some real research on the CAFR and the federal income tax it is all a big lie. Here are a few links to begin your journey into the truth!

www.thetruth.mysite.com There is alot of info here

http://cafr1.com You will be amazed

http://thetruth.mysite.com/IRS.html 31 questions and answers about the IRS a must read.

Well best wishes and good luck! Sincerely John

Re: Ben Pooler Contact for "We Said No"

Spanky — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 12:23:07 GMT

d_glass_slipper:
Spanky,

I do apprecaite your views and appreciate the fact the you do debate without slander. Please do feel free to contact my father with any debate. He does want both sides telling him their thoughts. He's open to anything.

Thank you for appreciating his effort.

Sincerely,

K Pooler

K, I don't wish to bother your father or engage him directly on this stuff. If he becomes interested he could meet directly with the Sheriff, the DA or one or more of the commissioners. A straight-shooting guy would find all of those people very easy and worthwhile to talk to.

If you speak with your dad, please tell him about the neighboring thread and point him to my last post. I'm a wind-bag when I'm in a hurry and don't have time to edit, but I did manage to explain my main point: The need for additional funding and staff is acute and it is easy to see and document: So, if not this tax, what? Nothing? Leave the staffing at 40% to 60% below recommended minimum staffing until the July crash when it will drop another 20%?

Over the last twenty years various combinations of county commissioners have tried 13 different tax proposals to secure funding for the essential public safety services other governments cannot provide. None have been successful at the polls.

It's easy to show the county staffing at 40% to 60% of minimum staffing in most law enforcement areas. I'm sure that's dangerous under the best circumstances, but it seems like a recipe for disaster when our area is already suffering from record-high crime rates and drug abuse, and organized gangs are starting to get a toe-hold in our community.

Re: Ben Pooler Contact for "We Said No"

Spanky — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 11:14:48 GMT

tab911:
Spanky,

Again I like what you have to say. I too want the sheriff's office funded, however I am tired of them holding the Sheriff hostage to fund all the BS.

Put a stand alone measure on the ballot for the SO without all the riders and lets see what happens. Let the rest of the programs get funding on their own.

Or let the people vote for them.

Here's an interesting fact: If the county completely closed ALL of the general fund departments except the Sheriff, the DA, Parole & Probation and Juvenile, the departments were staffed at 2001 levels and a second POD was opened at the Juvenile Corrections (Serbu) there wouldn't be enough money in the general fund to do it - even if the federal money came in at 100%. (The 2001 staffing was much better, but still the worst in the state...the DA said some of the worst "matrix horror stories" happened back then.) Obviously, the county cannot close, Elections, Assessment and Taxation, Human Resources, Administration - but even if they could it wouldn't work.

I think the commissioners would send out whatever service blend would work, as saving one critical program is better than none, but they were told that the best chance of success AND the most responsible course, was a blend of services.

When the commissioners held their last televised meeting there was a big county map behind commissioner Stewart and it was color-coded in reds and blues to show where the tax passed, almost passed, failed, and failed miserably. The areas where it got support tended to be clustered around Eugene where, I'm told, the people want all the "B.S."

Here's the other thing. The Sheriffs' Office doesn't work without the DA, as the DA has to support the arrests, or the arrests are undone in less than a day. The Sheriff literally can't hold people on his own. The DA is already overwhelmed. What would happen if the Sheriff suddenly started responding to the 2,400 burglaries, car-thefts and Forgeries, etc, they presently ignore? The DA would be buried, and the jail would be releasing another 200-300 people per month. And what if we had a drug team too? At some point we'd need a normal jail. POs are necessary too, as their part of the system (the supervision) helps to drive the state money coming in to support the Sherriff and others. We need Juvenile system corrections too. Both LCSO and LCDA staff have commented on the danger the juvenile rapists/sex abusers, etc, represent, and that system out there is being crippled by the loss of grant money and other cuts... and they can't be lodged in the adult system even if they had room which, of course, they don't.

Here's the real irony, Lane county citizens are so used to having the feds carry our water, and all the politicians are so aware of that, that they're not telling us what we'd have to do to really fix the problem. I mean, the citizens think the packages the county is talking about now are "Cadillac" packages - and the present tax was just to hold them at "awful" and "broken". The most generous package they discussed was more like a used Corolla, and it was immediately discarded as "impossible" due to "sticker shock". But we're a system that has suffered two decades of cuts and two decades of crime growth. We're the community that hasn't been to the dentist in twenty years...so it's going to be really expensive...if we have any teeth left when we get there.

When I take the balance we can find in a place like Durham, North carolina, or Colorado Springs, or Nashville, or similar place in Texas, Nebraska or Pennsylvania - even an average system with the same components - and then look at what it would cost to bring our system up to "average" in per-capita functionality and staffing, the county would have to build a new jail with at least TWICE the present capacity and stop renting it's beds out to pay for it. Then they'd have to literally double the sworn staff in every one of the nine police agencies in the county. Assuming the jail could be built for $120 million (twice the 1996 bid), that would require another $12 million per year just in debt service on the bond! I'm betting the total personell cost would be closer to $80 million or more PLUS the $12 million bond payment. Our community is gagging on the idea of a quarter of that.

I think it's easier to move...

Re: Ben Pooler Contact for "We Said No"

tab911 — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 06:04:42 GMT

Spanky,

Again I like what you have to say. I too want the sheriff's office funded, however I am tired of them holding the Sheriff hostage to fund all the BS.

Put a stand alone measure on the ballot for the SO without all the riders and lets see what happens. Let the rest of the programs get funding on their own.

Or let the people vote for them.

Re: Ben Pooler Contact for "We Said No"

Spanky — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:07:38 GMT

tab911:
Spanky,

Since you are the one with all the data, could you tell us where we rank nationally when it comes to programs and services offered per capita?

Next time you have a meeting with a Commissioner you should ask them why Lane county refuses to charge inmates a daily fee or why they refuse to charge inmates for medical care/medications. Under ORS a county can charge up to 60 dollars a day (post conviction) and for medical care/medications. Lane County is one of the last counties if not the last in the state to have this program. In fact Douglas County collected 49,000 dollars in a six month period just on the 60 dollars a day fee.

Would it solve the so called budget crisis? No, but it would be a start.
Charging inmates? That's a good question for the Sheriff. I don't know why the jail isn't charging inmates, but it sounds like a good idea to me if they can actually collect from them. However, using the costs provided by the Sheriff, $49,000 wouldn't even be enough money to fund an 84 bed jail unit for one week... Of course, some money would be better than none, so they should look at it.

I do not have the data on all the programs, as I don't know where to look for some of the data.

I have been able to find the data on the law enforcement sub-systems, like police officers: (Lane County Oregon is dead-last in per-capita police officer density - in the entire United States, and our crime numbers are up near the other extreme. The DA's office is similarly understaffed, with per-DA-caseloads 65% higher than the Oregon average, and 16% higher than the next closest DA's office (and salaries lower than ALL of their public sector comparators.) (That's after the DA quit prosecuting most non-violent misdemeanors like theft, forgery, game offenses, animal abuse, and the like.) I have a summary document showing staffing and other related data, but I don't know how to get it posted here...

Re: Ben Pooler Contact for "We Said No"

d_glass_slipper — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 01:45:07 GMT

DELETE

Re: Ben Pooler Contact for "We Said No"

tab911 — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 01:06:40 GMT

Spanky,

Since you are the one with all the data, could you tell us where we rank nationally when it comes to programs and services offered per capita?

Next time you have a meeting with a Commissioner you should ask them why Lane county refuses to charge inmates a daily fee or why they refuse to charge inmates for medical care/medications. Under ORS a county can charge up to 60 dollars a day (post conviction) and for medical care/medications. Lane County is one of the last counties if not the last in the state to have this program. In fact Douglas County collected 49,000 dollars in a six month period just on the 60 dollars a day fee.

Would it solve the so called budget crisis? No, but it would be a start.

Re: Ben Pooler Contact for "We Said No"

Spanky — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 15:49:52 GMT

I am sure your dad is a nice man, and I understand and appreciate his frustration with government, as our government(s) tend to leave us feeling ignored. It's hard not to be angry when you see the kind of crapola the Eugene city council funds while critical county services are starved for money.

I also appreciate the fact that, unlike most folks, your dad has the gumption to actually DO something. In my book, that makes him worthy of respect by itself.

He seems like an all-around good guy doing what he believes is right... Given what I have seen of his views, I think he and I would probably agree, generally, on what government should do with its money.

All of the above makes our present situation even more discouraging...

I believe that the clear majority of the public in Lane County is going to recognize [Ben Pooler's team] as being true heroes of our community, for standing up to Dwyer, Stewart, and Green. Lance, these three commissioners are just regular folks. They're a painter, a logger, and a football player/coach, and they are all decent men. Why not "grow a pair" and go talk to one or all of them? I think you'll find they aren't the Hitler, Stalin and Genghis Kahn you guys are making them out to be. Heroes? Hardly. I predict they will be successful in getting the petition filed and the tax will be subject to a vote. There will be no campaign to educate the public, so the tax will be overwhelmingly defeated -- mostly by people who don't understand the need for the tax and probably wouldn't have had to pay it. The county will immediately institute layoffs of 250-300 employees, most of whom will come from the Sheriff (already last in the state in staffing), the DA (similarly last in the state) and the juvenile corrections system (you guessed it!) - because that's where the money is.

Folks like me will fondly remember Mr. Pooler as the guy who saved me about $5 per week in exchange for taking Lane County from last in the USA to twenty percent below last in per-capita police officer density. We'll remember you guys as the folks who killed our last effort to fund a small jail, after every other tax had been tried unsuccessfully. I'll think of you and Ben whenever some crazed child-rapist-killer is let out of the jail to kill, again, because there are no jail beds. When another domestic violence victim is killed by the early-released abuser, (like Paula Benitez was), we'll think of the great job you, Ben and associates did for our community - because that extra $5 per week will buy me almost two more cups of coffee. (Remember, Lance, the really poor folks wouldn't have paid the tax at all, and the tax is only applied to the small percentage of post-deduction taxable income - and it's deductible against other income tax.)

You and I don't disagree with where this tax is going. It's going right into the garbage. That's why I'm sharing all the facts and the sources for all the raw data you want. After all, you guys are going politically active, so I want to make sure you have all the information you need to understand the natural consequences of your acts - and be held accountable. When the dust finally settles, when you and Ben are done taking your bows, I'll be reminding every victim how to get in touch with you two - because I'll be confident that you have a better solution for funding the public safety services only the county can provide. Nobody would be stupid enough to steer the community down this path without a better solution for funding essential services - especially given the fact that the last twelve tax proposals in the last twenty years have not been the "right" ones...

I wouldn't want to have anything to do with anything that further crippled the weakest public safety system in the state as the crime rate continues to rise, because I'd feel responsible for the harm that followed -- and I don't need the $5 this week.

And it is going to be these three commissioners who will instead receive a great big reminder from the community. Like they're going to give a hoot... Dwyer arrived at retirement age in the previous decade, so he can immediately retire and remember this as just one more example of people who cut off their noses to spite their faces. Stewart can comfortably return to the private sector where he'll promptly double his salary and be able to spend more time with family and others who appreciate his talent and his efforts. I don't know what Bobby Green will do, but sitting in the dentists chair for a living would be better than being a politician in Eugene, Oregon.

I hope you remember this conversation, Lance, because if you value fiscal responsibility you're really going to hate the joke you're pulling on yourselves and the rest of the community. You're trying to get rid of the thinkers who define the present right and center of the county board, leaving the two, um...others behind. When the two remaining commissioners are done we'll have traded public health nurses, cops, POs and DAs for a bigger cat hotel and more commissioner TV time. We'll remember to thank you and Ben for that too.

Please do stay tuned, as a small army of other common people will soon be joining forces with these men. Then you will be able to spread the credit around even further. :) Yep, the lemmings marching off the cliff come to mind... The fife music of the union army is playing in the background, little chests swelling with pride, determined faces... brains in neutral... Ah yes, democracy at work. Man, I'm proud to be an Oregonian at this moment! ;-)

Lance in Springfield

Ben Pooler Contact for "We Said No"

d_glass_slipper — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 01:37:19 GMT

DELETE